Indian artworks auctioned for $3.6 million

An online auction in New York featuring 115 contemporary Indian works has realised just over $3.6 million.

An online auction featuring 115 contemporary Indian works has realised just over $3.6 million against a pre-sale estimate of $2.8 million, with a healthy addition of new bidders, signalling a widening of buyer base for the art from the subcontinent.

Atul Dodiya's "Chickoo Drawing" which fetched just over $3.19 lakh topped the lot in the auction by Saffron art, which ended on Thursday.

Subodh Gupta followed closely with the next two lots setting auction records for his untitled works that sold for $2.5 lakh and $2.32 lakh each.

The two-day online auction featured 115 lots from 43 contemporary artists and a range of genres and mediums of contemporary Indian art. As many as 97 of the 115 lots were sold and 58 of them fetched higher than the estimated price.

The sales, which are expected to set the trend for the upcoming Indian art auctions during Asia Week in New York, underscore the continued stability of prices following the spectacular rise of the contemporary Indian art market over the last three years.

The seven-year-old Saffronart's total sales this year value over $16.9 million. The auction, said Saffronart, attracted an unprecedented number of around 500 registrants for bidding including collectors from India, United States, Britain, Germany, Hong Kong, the UAE and Australia.

Prices for Indian contemporary artworks have been breaking new barriers every year with the high point being the $1.6 million earned by a Tyeb Mehta work at a 2005 Christie's auction in New York.